Not sure why everyone is hating on this. I have an iPhone 5 and iPad but would love this feature in my car. Would be great especially for road trips since tethering laptops to iPhone is a sure way to kill the battery really quickly. Plus hopefully this might be even faster since it has a better antenna.

I have iphone 5 with 4G (Telstra) and the connection speed is reasonably fast. When you have connection speed through your phone I just can't understand why you want to pay for an additional device. Anyway, tethering not possible with ipads, which I think is the most commonly used portable device, it is a waste of time and money. I am happy with the connection speed of 4G. Even the BMW apps and internet/google are much faster loading through 4G. Why do you have to take out a second broadband plan when you're already paying for one part of the phone package.

Why don't they just leave out the whole iDrive and put a dock connector for iPads or similar tablets (something universal. They can do nav, wi-fi hot spots, music, and more. Plus the new nav screens look like iPads now anyways. This way you can also scale your technology as your car ages too.

Why don't they just leave out the whole iDrive and put a dock connector for iPads or similar tablets (something universal. They can do nav, wi-fi hot spots, music, and more. Plus the new nav screens look like iPads now anyways. This way you can also scale your technology as your car ages too.

Doesn't make any sense at all. Not any company in the world will sell any product for which their customer must then turn to another company (Apple and the likes) to operate the original product.
This is handing out the quality/operability/usability/future of your product to a 3rd party who is totally beyond your own control.
Never gonna happen.

I've had this as a no-cost option on my cell phone for a while now. And, I live in the states.

I don't like how automakers are trying hard to sell cars by increasing the number of peripheral gadgets they have, much the same way handset manufacturers are. It lends an ephemeral nature to the car that even cell phones shouldn't have. Keep a car for 5 years and it's electronics become dated and are often no longer supported/don't work. The chassis, engine and interior, on the other hand, should be of near-new quality, if the car was taken care of.

A novel feature but, not something I'd ever buy.

Agreed....Just turn on the Hot Spot on the iPhone 5 and go. Lots of huffing and puffing from BMW for redundancy in offerings

I think this is probably redundant for a lot of people. I think there are some potential uses however. If I have a hotspot, I can use my ipod touch and the Wifi connection. This leaves my phone able to stay in my pocket and i don't have to worry about connecting it. It also opens BMW apps to android users, as now you can just hook up an old ipod touch. I imagine this 4G connectivity will be better because it uses the sharkfin which is outside of the car. You will also not have to worry about draining the battery on your phone.
Also, for me, I can't use the hotpot feature on my phone because I have unlimited data and Sprint won't let me.
It might not be necessary for everyone, but it is a technological improvement and will be useful for some people, so why poo-poo it?

I could see the use of this data for services like google maps in the navigation. But they should also give an option to simply tether our phones to supply data to the car. Seems pointless the way they have it ( car supplying the data). Most will have smartphone that could tether with no extra monthly costs.